"Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd…"

March 25th, 2014

My last day in Australia. I’d fly out tomorrow evening and I had to check out of my hotel quite early (10am). So that pretty much left today to make the best out of my trip.

The games at the Sydney Cricket Grounds were amazing. If you didn’t get to read about any of that, don’t worry; just click here. I wrote up one entry into a two day spread about the games. It was pretty intense and the Australian fan base was really supportive and awesome.

I started my day out just walking aimlessly towards down town Sydney. I figured I’d run into something and make the most of the day. When I got to Hyde Park, I saw this:

That is the Sydney Tower. And yes, you can go all the way to the top for a low, low price of $69 dollars (if you get the family value plan). There are two types of tours you can take up the Sydney Tower. One is called the Sky walk. It’s a motorized platform that you get on and it takes you all the way around on the outside of the tower. Or you can just take a ride up to the observation deck for $26 big ones and mill around in the souvenir shop and look around outside. I was able to spot the Sydney Aquarium, Darling Harbor and my hotel from the observation deck. I took many photos from inside the tower and this one is my favorite:

Once I got back down to ground level, I sought out something to eat…

…that would be Emu jerky, Crocodile jerky and Kangaroo jerky. Each bag was reasonably priced but the Kangaroo was cheapest so I bought one of those. The consistency of the jerky was much like beef jerky except it was a little more on the chewy side and a little more moist. Plus it had little grey fat pockets in the meat. It wasn’t bad but I think the idea of eating Kangaroo was a little on the weird side. I’ve had crocodile meat before and I did not like it.

I headed down to the Darling Harbor where I ran into the Hard Rock Café, some other shops and a whole mess of restaurants. It was very exquisite and all outdoor seating. It made me nervous to eat outside because the seagulls were thick. They all seemed to behave themselves and never really got close to anyone eating, but the off chance that one decided to get brave or poop in my lunch was a little bit more than I could bare.

Like I mentioned in Day #2, I continued to find these painted Black Rhinos placed all around Sydney. There were 125 of them and I set out to find all 125. Unfortunately, two of my days on this trip were wrecked due to heavy down pour and bad weather. I did find a few more around the harbor, though:

I think this one is number eight and here’s number nine…

…and here is number ten:

That’s about all I could find. So yeah, I’m 115 off from my original goal. If you’re interested in knowing why these Rhinos were placed all over Sydney, here’s the link to the website.

Next, I headed towards the Sydney Harbor bridge. Take a look how mammoth this bridge is…

…and yes, it is climbable. And yes, I climbed it. And yes, it was awesome. And yes, I’d do it again. The Sydney Harbor bridge spans 435 feet skyward and has nearly 190,000 cars pass over it daily. 16 confirmed deaths took place while constructing the bridge and only one person has ever survived the bridge after falling off of it.

The tour took roughly three and a half hours to complete and it was the most amazing view of Sydney you’ll ever lay your eyes on. It overlooked the Sydney Opera House, John Travolta’s house, the Darling Harbor and Nicole Kidman’s top floor apartment. I have many pictures that were taken professionally from the tour guide that cost about $50 bucks to get (plus the $235 to climb the bridge) but it was worth every damn penny and I’d do it again in a heart beat. I’m deathly afraid of heights but this bridge is so well constructed and you’re well strapped in (tethered to the railing by a safety strap) that even if you did fall, you’d only drop five feet at best.

I don’t want to spoil my next blog entry, though. I’m going to do a full-write up of my bridge climb experience in one long entry (or as long as I can make it) with pictures and everything within the next couple of days! So if you’re a faithful reader, sorry I couldn’t get all the pictures of me on the bridge in this entry. They’ve been printed out so I have to scan them in to upload them into a blog entry. Trust me, though, it is well worth the wait! This experience was awesome and if you’re ever going to make a trip abroad, I suggest you travel to Sydney and do this bridge climb!

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My MLBlog centered on the Miami Marlins, serving up all the latest news and analysis, triumphs and perils of the team. Steve Miller is a lifelong Marlins fan from Fredericksburg, Virginia, who frequents Nationals Park. Follow him through this blog as he chronicles the Marlins as well as his personal baseball experiences.

Thought processes and conversations started under the tilted cap of Tropicana Field. Someday everyone will know the Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida, not TAMPA, or the fictitious city of TAMPA BAY.